Therapy For Me

W/C 25th December 2023 This weeks chunk of TFM does kinda have the feel of that week between Christmas & New Year about it, I have explained it away as being a bit of a hibernation moment but I guess you could say it is about being slightly disconnected from the grid. Apart from the nonsense about weights and measures I have lost touch with the world a bit this week, not even bothering to get...

W/C 18th December 2023 I wonder if TFM is getting a little stale. It is difficult because of the very nature of this podcast to know if it has become stuck in a bit of a rut, and although there is kind of natural progression inherent in it's DNA it was never a story that had a obvious and unfolding dramatic arc. It still works for me, and I still enjoy sitting down for 20-25 minutes every week and...

W/C 11th December 2023 I just love this song, and the fact I am employing it ironically to emphasise the point that we are going to regroup in January to revisit the parliamentary physcho-drama around the Rwanda Bill, shouldn't deter from it's awesome-ness-ness. It's the Beach Boys sounding exactly like what you think of when you think of the Beach Boys. Absolute classic. Stay safe. Do It Again -...

W/C 4th December 2023 So many links to point you toward this week that there is hardly any space for the actual notes themselves, so I thought I would drop them in as little CTAs along the way. Let's start with the majestic Doctor Who and the incredible episode from last Saturday which is called Wild Blue Yonder you can find here if you leave in the UK. On the subject of the 14th incarnation I am...

W/C 28th November 2023 I think I have sailed past my 200th episode of TFM without even noticing. I found myself thinking last week that I must be getting close to that milestone so I did a quick search on Captivate and it suggested I have published xx episodes as of last Saturday. Now I need to go back and check properly, just in case that total includes non-episode-proper content (trailers, updat...

W/C 20th November 2023 I have been dipping into the Doctor Who content that is all over the BBC iPlayer at the moment, including some of the documentary content and odd episodes and curiosities. Firstly there is a ton of stuff and for even the most casual of Who-vians it's a mighty easy way to idle away a few hours. What I still come back to is how good some of those re-boot episodes actually were...

W/C 13th November 2023 As an accompaniment to some of what I am about to talk about, I thought I would clarify the whole 'how can a person that hasn't been elected possibly be appointed to the cabinet' position. Well, as with most things concerning the governance of the UK it is down to convention. Technically speaking that could have been me getting out of a car in Downing Street this week, traip...

W/C 6th November 2023 On a completely unrelated note to anything that is covered in this week's TFM, Jason & I launched the new season of 9-42 this week. The reason I mention that little aside, is that I have been somewhat overwhelmed by the number of people who (after an eight month lay-off) have chosen to listen to the five and a half minute trailer we put out on Thursday. Podcast listening...

W/C 30th October 2023 Two things have come together to make the TFM production process a little less fraught this morning. The first is the fact that I decided to run yesterday, so instead of Thursday-Saturday-Sunday which is my normal routine, I have shaken it up a bit and gone with Thursday-Friday-Sunday. The second is the extra hour that I have gotten from being in mainland Spain, and which I a...

W/C 23rd October 2023 The notes. like this weeks episode, are going to have to be quick. Normally, I would explain in writing but as will become clear I really don't have the time - such is the schedule I have to adhere to this morning. Needless to say I will more than likely be updating you as the week goes on, and as is often the case I will stumble across stuff that intrigues, interests to just...

W/C 16th October 2023 I always loved this song. It's a bit like another lesser know Marillon song called How Can It Hurt that I also really like. No idea why it landed with me the way it did. It just did. Of course I never thought I would be able to neccesarily use it as a TFM episode title, but I hope when you get to the relevant section of this week's episode it all falls into place. Right I am...

W/C 9th October 2023 Well that all changed rather quick. As you listen to this weeks TFM you will find that I recorded a whole section in order to use 'oops, I did it again' as the title for the episode. It turns I have already used that particular pop-banger it back in May 2022, so that left me scrabbling about looking for another title that would chime with one of this week's topics. Anyway the...

W/C 2nd October 2023 **Major Spoiler Alert** For this week's TFM I am going to bang on about the Conservative Party Conference The Tories gathered this week in a disused railway terminus in Manchester for their annual get-together, and I was drawn like a moth to the flame. It was a shambles before they arrived, and it just got more shambolic as the week went on. If you want some kind of gauge to t...

W/C 25th September 2022 I think I may have a verruca. I have never (to my knowledge) been afflicted with one, but it appears that I have one now. I can't actually see it, it is in a rather tricky spot to see on my left heel but Mrs S reckons that's what it is and that I probably picked it up on holiday - apparently they take a while to ripen or something. Anyway it has started to hurt when I walk,...

I hate waking up late. As a rule I don't set an alarm in a morning, because I am fairly good at managing it with my own internal snooze function. Occasionally if the reason is one that is non-negotiable (those pesky planes or trains that don't seem to want to bend their schedules) I will set an alert, but invariably I wake up 45 minutes before it is due to go off, and bizarrely I end up getting le...

W/C 11th September 2023 This track is less than two minutes, but its an absolute belter. It's from an album called All The Pain Money Can Buy, and I bought it in the US whilst on honeymoon in 1998 because the hit single from the album was being played everywhere. As it happened I also picked up Stunt by the Barenaked Ladies for the self-same reason that One Week was also being played wall-to-wall....

W/C 4th September 2023 There is something about the songs of Richard Hawley that make them perfect as an audio signature for a hotel like the Renaissance at St Pancras. So I am going to take the opportunity to bang on about him again, because I think everybody deserves a bit of RH in there lives and if you haven’t discovered him yet then I commend him to you. As it happens he has announced a caree...

W/C 28th August 2023 I seem to to recall that back when it was released the Jack the Ripper mini-series was much anticipated because it purported to name the identity of the infamous killer. Much was made of the research that had gone into the production, and the access that was granted to official records and documentation not previously disclosed. Of course in the end it played out like the dram...

W/C 21st August 2023 As it has turns out, I have spent very little time sat in the garden so far this summer. You may recall that it was one of the things I was really looking forward to around April time, that seasonal improvement in the ambient weather conditions that makes sitting outside such a joy. And yet I was looking out at my soggy cushions this morning, trying to think of the last time I...

W/C 14th August 2023 For the first time ever I have not been able to find a video clip of the song I have chosen to be the title for this weeks episode. As you know I try to find something with either a title (or content) that is in someway connected, in all or part, to what I am riffing on. In fact the process of landing on the right song often takes longer than capturing the content itself. This...

W/C 7th August 2023 Whilst this track is clearly about a bar, the sentiment chimes with something I am reflecting on in this weeks episode of TFM. Wilko has been a high street constant in my life, and because it had an administrative base close to the town where I grew up, then it always felt like a local success story. As a child I spent a lot of time at the Little Theatre in Retford, my Dad was...

W/C 31st July 2023 There's a lot to like about this part of France. Aside from the things I am going to talk about (and lets not beat about the bush some of them are pretty epic) there is the fact that everywhere I turn there is some seriously cool neckwear, and I have fallen head over heels for a house just down the road. Nothing grand, just a simple single storey affair that is very much in the...

W/C 24th July 2023 When I first came to St Gilles Croix-de-Vie in 1990 it was like being introduced to a whole different world. It was the first time I had been abroad (save for a school skiing trip) the first time I had stayed on a Eurocamp and the first time on an overnight ferry crossing. The experience of arriving on a campsite to a fully erected tent, with campbeds and a fridge was a revelati...

W/C 17th July 2023 I have been very fortunate in the fact that whilst I was working for my previous employer I got to visit some fairly prestigious events. Which is how I got to see Gary Moore play at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 2010. As a technical sponsor of the event Shure would get access to VIP tickets, and as such I got into the cycle of travelling over for a couple of nights every year to...

W/C 10th July 2023 I am finding it a little bit hard to believe that I haven't used this episode title song before. but it seems not so I am going to deploy it in the context of my washing machine door. I have always had a soft spot for the song itself, but I now cannot hear it without being taken back to that wonderful episode of Gavin & Stacy when the neighbours Pete & Dawn renew their w...